Quality Sixteen

Disaster films are in again: zombies
and apocalyptic nightmares – nature
as the enemy. Our culture’s appetite
for science and catastrophe projected
now on several screens at once. Abbot
& Costello meet the Mummy scared me
half to death, but like a gateway drug
it led me on to harder stuff: Earthquake,
Lester’s Juggernaut and Jaws – the purest
angel dust of features. Psychologists
believe our deepest fears are rooted
in the memories we share. Historians
might disagree – this turning outward
is a wartime theme. So’s naked tyranny.